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AUE Weekend Trip Report
Key West: July 28-29, 2001
USS S-16, USS Kendrick, USS Wilkes Barre
After taking a quick look at how my yard has transformed into a jungle due
to lack of attention during my July diving trek, I loaded up the truck and
headed for Key West. The group wandered into the Seaport for a quick lunch
before loading up our gear and motoring out for an afternoon dive on the USS
S-16 (SS-121), a submarine that was laid down on March 19, 1918, by the Lake
Torpedo Boat Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The S-3 Class coastal and
harbor defense submarine was 231 feet in length overall with a beam of
almost 22 feet. The submarine was armed with four 21-inch torpedo tubes
installed in the bow. On May 22, 1935, USS S-16 was decommissioned and
placed in the reserve fleet at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
With the threat of World War II looming ever closer to the United States,
S-16 was taken out of mothballs and re-commissioned on December 2, 1940.
However, the S-16 was again decommissioned on October 4, 1944, and struck
from the Navy List. The S-boat was intentionally destroyed by sinking on
April 3, 1945, off Key West, becoming the first vessel to be commissioned
into the "Key West Ghost Fleet." Today, she sits in approximately 260-feet
of water.
Eagerly anticipating our visit to the S-16, we loaded up the boat and
meandered south toward the wrecksite. We would again learn that one of the
hardest parts of these dives is finding the damn wreck. The LORAN numbers I
received did not convert well and put us in deep water, over 3 miles from
the actual location. Our secondary set of numbers placed us closer to the
ballpark, around a quarter-mile away. After spending a good deal of time in
our fruitless search, we noticed a small fishing boat approach and start
drifting over the same area. We opted to motor over and investigate. After
conversing over the radio, we got the correct numbers to the sub from a very
helpful fisherman. We soon marked the wreck and prepped our shotline,
dropping it into the attractive blue surface waters. After gearing up, our
team of eight lined the stern of the boat and dropped en masse once the boat
positioned itself adjacent to the shotline. Right before I hit the water,
the last thing I remember was one of my buddies saying "Eat my bubbles..."
Finning towards the bottom, one of my other buddies made the mistake of
scootering too close to me. Taking the opportunity, I quickly grabbed a fin
as he dropped past (swimming is for suckers) and hitched a ride. As we
approached the bottom, I dropped off and worked my way up to the hook into a
light half-knot current. Soon I saw a massive shadow appear as the conning
tower of the S-16 loomed in the distance � it was much bigger than I
expected. I turned to signal the rest of the team as I observed their
lights in the distance as they worked their way to the wreck. I swam up to
the conning tower and checked out the cool chariot bridge and open hatch
into the control room. I slowly worked my way aft, watching the numerous
fish on the portside of the wreck dart about. The wreck lists about 20
degrees to starboard and the port side of the wreck is exposed to the
prevailing current. As such, the port side is richly adorned with a garden
of whip corals, moreso than on the lee surfaces of the wreck. Heading aft,
I dropped down and checked out the starboard and port screws that are still
in place. Working my way back forward, I looked down into the large aft
hatch that leads into the generator room. This hatch is large enough to
drop down into with doubles, something that will have to wait until our next
visit. Passing the conning tower again, I continued on to the bow. There
is another large hatch open in the bow, allowing for even more penetration
into the interior. I eventually reached the bow which was in great shape.
Other subs that I have visited usually have deteriorated greatly, soon
shedding the outside hull and leaving only the pressure hull. The S-16
still looks very much like a submarine and is very impressive. The
hydrodynamic lines of the bow were high off the bottom and divers can pass
clear under the forward portion of the sub almost back to the forward hatch.
I slowly worked my way back aft and hung out with some of the other divers
near the conning tower. Our camera guys were doing their magic and
documenting the sub while the rest of us played around for our last few
minutes. After the rest of the team departed, my buddy and I reeled in back
to the shotline at the end of our allotted dive time. En route, we bumped
into one of our other buddies ("Eat my bubbles") who was just now showing up
after wandering around the sand for a while <G>. At the time we didn't know
what was up, so we lingered a few more minutes as he did a cursory
examination of the sub. Soon, we regrouped and headed up for our
decompression obligation which was rather dull. The team eventually boarded
the boat and headed back to Key West, arriving in the harbor just in time to
watch the sunset spectacle.
The following day dawned with even better weather as the team arrived at the
boat to dive the USS Kendrick, followed by the USS Wilkes Barre. The USS
Kendrick (DD-612) was launched on April 2, 1942, by the Bethlehem Steel
Corporation, San Pedro, California, and commissioned on September 12, 1942.
The Kendrick, a Bristol class destroyer, was 348 feet in length with a 36
foot beam. The Kendrick was eventually subjected to demolition tests off
Key West by the David Taylor Model Basin, Carderock, Maryland, in March of
1968. She sits upright and intact, resting in approximately 320 feet of
water.
We had attempted to dive this once before, but errant numbers and a poor
bottom machine left us high and dry. The Kendrick lies almost inline with
the current, and due to her narrow beam, she can be a hard target to hit.
After spending a good deal of time looking for the wreck, we lucked out and
registered a low spike on the bottom machine. We soon obtained good GPS
numbers, as the various members of our team ritualistically whipped out
their GPS units to secure accurate positioning information; future visits to
these wrecks should be much easier now that we know exactly where the damn
things are.
We rigged the shotline and once in position sent it towards the wreck below.
The team again dressed out and splashed together, working their way down
the shotline. Due to the east winds over the past week, the surface
currents this weekend were negligible. However, once below the thermocline,
they were obvious. The mild current yesterday was replaced today with a
blistering one and the descent took a fair amount of effort. Approaching
the bottom and working towards the hook, I noticed the anchor chain of the
Kendrick running off towards the wreck in the distance. Aside from the very
strong current, the water on the bottom was a numbing 54 degrees � yikes!
Swimming against the current was useless, so I dropped to the bottom and
worked along the anchor chain towards the wreck. As I began to pull along
the links of the chain, I noticed the bottom was moving. WTF?! It took a
second for my brain to register what I was seeing as I peered closer to
figure out the anomaly. I soon realized that the sand bottom was covered in
a thick carpet of small (one inch) brittle stars that would move around as
you approached them. It was pretty damn cool. As I continued to work
towards the wreck, the razor sharp bow of the destroyer soon appeared out of
the mist. Awesome! I finned up to the bow and then had to force myself to
relax for a minute or two after the hefty workout. I held onto the edge of
the hawse pipe and caught my breath as I flapped in the breeze, taking a
look at my surroundings. As I checked all my gauges out, I noticed the max
depth on my Uwatec registered *exactly* 326 feet which prompted a chuckle.
Once rested, I took off to work my way aft towards the superstructure.
While the forward guns have been removed, the rounded bridge of the
destroyer is still is dressed out with her portholes. As I peered in, I saw
several red snapper hiding from the current. A few snowy grouper and scamp
dashed about, not lingering in the swift current. I slowly crept about,
absorbing the scenery around me. I stopped just aft of the superstructure;
the temperature at this depth (~290 feet) was in the low sixties and much
more tolerable than the water just under me. As the deck drops down to
around 310 feet and there is little protection from the current aside from
the funnels, I opted to just hang around this area until my other buddies
wandered back. The guys that headed towards the aft noticed a fracture that
traversed the entire beam of the wreck; the Kendrick is actually in two
sections but still contiguous as the sections are only separated by a few
feet. Soon, the guys reappeared and we poked around a bit more around the
bridge. One of my buddies went up the mast above the bridge and grabbed
hold as he mimicked a flag whipped about by the current. There is a decent
amount of line on this wreck and the swift current had it billowing out off
the starboard side. Shaking my head at his lunacy, we eventually let loose
and sailed back towards the shotline towards the end of our 22 minute bottom
time. After clearing the grapple from the debris that it was hooked into,
the current pushed us up the shotline like an elevator. As we worked our
way up, the current fortunately became a bit more subdued. However, as the
hook was still dragging in the sand, we signaled our intent to let loose of
the line and shoot bags for the latter portions of our decompression.
During deco, I tried to find a word to describe the wreck of the Kendrick,
and the only one that sprang to mind was "sexy" � the lines of the Kendrick
are sleek and petite, illustrating the potential speed this vessel once
possessed. With the misty 60 feet of visibility we had, it was a great
dive. We all agreed that the dive with a scooter was a "kick-ass" dive,
though without a scooter the dive was an "asskicker." However, one of the
guys said the current was so abusive that he was barely able to make headway
into the current with his Gavin. Hopefully, he will develop "turbo" mode
for our next batch of scooters.
After we secured our gear and recovered the shotline, we motored over to
Pelican Shoal for lunch and mid-afternoon snorkeling before our afternoon
dive on the USS Wilkes Barre. It was a most relaxing day on the water.
After playing about with nurse sharks, lobsters, tarpon, and spotted eagle
rays for three hours, we worked our way over to the "Willie Bee." The USS
Wilkes-Barre was a Cleveland Class light cruiser, 608 feet in length, 63
feet in breadth and displacing 10,000 tons. Her keel was laid down on
December 14, 1942, at Camden, New Jersey, by the New York Shipbuilding
Corporation. She was launched on December 24, 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Grace
Shoemaker Miner, the wife of a prominent Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, doctor,
and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on July 1, 1944, with Capt.
Robert L. Porter, Jr., in command. The Wilkes saw a great deal of action in
the Pacific Theater of World War II, eventually receiving four battle stars
for her service.
Decommissioned on October 9, 1947, the USS Wilkes-Barre was simultaneously
placed in reserve at Philadelphia. She remained in "mothballs" at
Philadelphia until struck from the Navy list on January 11, 1975 � the last
light cruiser on the Navy list. Thereafter, the ship was subjected to
underwater explosive tests off Key West. On May 12, 1972, her battered hulk
broke in two. The
after section sank of its own accord on that day, the forward section sank
on the 13th, as a result of a scuttling charge. The impressive stern
section sits upright in 250 feet of water, while the less-visited bow
section sits on her starboard side a few hundred feet away.
The Wilkes is always a crowd pleaser and is personally one of my favorite
dives. On a day with good visibility, the wreck is awe-inspiring.
Fortunately for a couple of the guys who had yet to dive the wreck, an
impressive model of the Wilkes was graciously donated to me by Captain Billy
Deans. The detail of the model is astounding and really provides a good
primer for those about to visit the wreck. Even though most of us had been
to the wreck several times, the enthusiasm for this dive has yet to
dissipate. After dropping the shotline on the wreck, two of the guys who
wanted to pull a longer bottom time jumped in to secure the line. After 5
minutes, the rest of the team jumped in for a quick 25-minute dive. Again,
while there was no surface current, towards the bottom the current picked up
but was much less severe than our experience on the Kendrick. As I saw the
wreck appear below, I dropped off the line and dropped to the port deck. I
wandered around the portside of the superstructure, chasing behind several
large snapper. At the aft base of the superstructure, the resident jewfish
lumbered around, thumping his disapproval at our presence. Several of us
rendezvoused at one of the guns in order to get a group shot, though a few
of the guys lagged behind and missed the party. I dropped down and swam
back to the hangar, finning over the massively flat aft deck. A few black
grouper hovered about warily watching me as I passed by. After poking
around a bit more, I finned back towards the shotline and waited for the
rest of the team to rally. Unfortunately, two of the divers mis-interpreted
our dive plan and lingered a bit longer, to the displeasure of the those
that were forced to extend their planned bottom time. After the remainder
of the team appeared, we instinctively worked together to free the shotline
and scooter it away from the wreck so we could drift off for decompression.
It was a great weekend of diving and we look forward to rounding out the Key
West Ghost Fleet with upcoming dives on the USS Fred T. Berry and USS
Saufley. Underwater images of the USS S-16 and USS Kendrick should appear
on the AUE website later this week.
USS S-16
24 25.207N
82 02.393W
USS Kendrick
24 27.608N
81 36.064W
Cheers,
Mike
Michael C. Barnette
Association of Underwater Explorers
Because it's there...somewhere...maybe.
http://www.mikey.net/aue
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